The ‘Italian Army Knife’ of the multitools

There’s a new multitool in town. And if you’re in the market for an upgrade of your roadside bicycle toolkit, then maybe you too should check out the SILCA Venti.

‘Italian Army Knife’

The Venti includes a chain-splitting tool for 10-12 speed chains

The name ‘Venti’ refers to the number 20, which is the total number of tools contained in this pocket rocket. Oddly, the people at SILCA market this gadget with the nickname the ‘Italian Army Knife‘. This seems silly for several reasons, such as the device having no blade, and that it takes quite a bit to beat a Swiss Army knife in terms of branding. But, OK, back to the multitool.

Wrenched

The Venti has most of the tools one would expect for a specialist cyclist’s wrench: seven different sized hex keys; a cross-head and a flat-headed screwdriver; and four (!) different torque blades. This covers the normal stuff, but there are a couple of extras which indicate that the designers are cyclists too. There is a valve core remover (handy for the tubeless tribe), and 10mm and 8mm wrenches, but also a 7mm box wrench. Seven millimetres?! I hear you ask. Yes, because those dear folks at Shimano designed their hydraulic disc brake calliper bolt with a 7mm nut. Nuts indeed.

Magnetic personality

There is a well thought-out feature on the inside of the black hand-grips. Most of us out on a long trip will pack a spare quick-link for chain-related emergencies, and the SILCA Venti has a little magnet inside the handle to grab your link and keep it safe. Nice touch. Also cool is the removable plate, which not only forms part of the chain splitter, spoke key, and open-ended wrenches, but includes a so-called ‘disc pad spreader’.

This flat piece of metal could be very useful for pushing your disc brake pads into position, in order to put the wheel in again. Sometimes, you will find the brakes closed (as cyclists call it) and the little cylinder behind each brake pad needs to be pushed back into place to create room for the disc. Clever touch, including the disc pad spreader, we thought. The SILCA Venti retails for around €53. Not cheap, but name me a SILCA product that is…

Re-setting your disc brake pads without a sturdy tool can be annoying.

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